


Fan Mail

by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)



Series: Imagine Tony & Bucky [38]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Cute Kids, Established Relationship, Fan Characters, M/M, Prosthesis, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 20:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4032805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaqen_hgar/pseuds/Finely%20Honed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <span class="small">Prompt: Imagine Bucky accepting he'll never be loved by kids like the rest of the Avengers. Imagine fanmail piling up. Imagine Tony getting around to looking through a little of his fanmail, showing Bucky a particularly good one with them and clint, hearing aids, arc reactor, and arm carefully drawn by a little girl with a prosthetic leg painted like Bucky's arm. Tony realizes Bucky didn't know about his fanmail, and takes him down to check. There's rooms full of drawings, letters, and pictures.</span>
</p>
<p>Tony looked over his shoulder, expecting Bucky to still be there, but he was hanging back, as if someone had chased him off. Tony quirked an eyebrow at him, but Bucky just looked at the little kid and shuffled off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fan Mail

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr here: [dezinformatsia.tumblr.com/](http://dezinformatsia.tumblr.com/) and all of my Imagine Tony & Bucky fills can be found here: [imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/tagged/dezinformatsia](http://imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/tagged/dezinformatsia)

Tony wanted to kick himself for not putting it together sooner.

Post press conference, a stressed out looking guy ran up with a kid, a hopeful and kind of desperate look in his eyes. The kid was dressed as Iron Man, which was just gorgeous, and Tony was over in a shot, like a moth to a flame.

“Hey little guy,” he said, fist bumping the awesome tiny Iron Man.

“I’m a girl,” a voice squeaked indignantly, and sure enough, when the little homemade cardboard mask was pushed up he was presented with the sight of a very adorable girl.

“Forgive me for being a presumptuous jerk,” Tony said. “Great armor, did you make it?”

“Yes. I’m gonna be Iron Man when I grow up.”

“But not until then,” her dad said, eyes wide and pleading. “When Mr. Stark was a kid, he didn’t do  _any_  superheroing, right?”

“Dad,” she whined. “I’m six, I’m old enough to be super!”

Which was when Tony realized that part of her Iron Man costume was actually a cast. Yeah, not good, he can’t sleep at night if little kids are getting hurt pretending to be Iron Man.

“Hey, your dad is right. I mean, you’re right, too—definitely be super at everything you do—but you should probably leave the hero part to us. At least until you’re old enough to take over for me.”

Tony looked over his shoulder, expecting Bucky to still be there, but he was hanging back, as if someone had chased him off. Tony quirked an eyebrow at him, but Bucky just looked at the little kid and shuffled off.

He spent quite a bit of time with Kate and her dad, getting her to agree to be super but not so much a hero in the physically demanding sense of the word. Because he liked multitasking, Tony’s brain whirred away the entire time, slowly putting two and two together.

Tony had noticed the way Bucky looked at the various bits of Avengers merchandise they see people wearing, or selling. There’s plenty of Captain America shields stretched across the chests of men, women, and children alike. Big Hulk hands are oft to be found being used by kids gleefully smashing things. Out of habit more than anything, Natasha did her best to hide from the spotlight, but even she was becoming more of a public figure. People fell all over themselves for Thor—which you couldn’t blame them for, the guy was gorgeous—and their little Hawkeye had a cult following.

Bucky had only been on the team in an official capacity for a couple months, and Tony was pretty sure Steve had specifically been shielding him from all of the  _weird_  that surrounded being an Avenger. 

As a result, there was no Winter Soldier merchandise making the rounds.

So. Tony had a theory, and figured it was as good a time as any to test it out.

“Kate wanted to meet you,” Tony said, flopping down next to Bucky on the couch.

“She wanted to meet Iron Man,” Bucky answered, his voice even keeled, but not fooling Tony in the least. “Kids don’t want to meet me. What’s all that?”

Tony grinned. “Oh, this?” He shook the box he was holding, then pried the lid off. “Seeing Kate reminded me that I’ve been neglecting my fan mail.”

Bucky shifted uncomfortably, as if to leave, so Tony plopped the box down on his lap, forcing him to stay still. For a minute, anyway. He’d spent a bit of time down in the mail storage room making his selections before dragging the box upstairs. He did his best to act nonchalant as he grabbed a letter off the top.

“Dear Mister Iron Man,” he read aloud, clearing his throat. “My name is Jayla. You probably don’t remember me, but you came to see me and some other kids in the hospital last year and I liked meeting you very much. I was very sad when you visited because I didn’t have a leg anymore and so the doctors gave me a prosthetic.”

Beside him, Bucky twitched, his eyebrows drawing together in that brooding, adorable way he has. It made Tony want to stop and kiss him, but he resisted.

“I thought my prosthetic was ugly and horrible, but you made me feel better and told me about your friend Bucky and his arm and about Clint’s hearing aids and about your arc reactor. I like my prosthetic very much now. The new one you sent is very cool and it is my favorite color. Purple! I can do all of the things I did before, and I even ran in a race and won! Sometimes kids are mean or stare, but I always ignore them like you said to.”

He had Bucky’s full attention.

“I have drawn a picture for you and your friends and I hope you like it.”

Tony handed over the drawing, which was excellent, really, and just so happened to feature the Winter Soldier rather prominently. Jayla had drawn herself in the picture, too, holding Bucky’s prosthetic hand. He’s center stage, but Tony is there as well with his arc reactor, and Clint with his hearing aids.

“I would like to see you again some day, but please bring Bucky, because I like him best of all the Avengers! Love, Jayla.”

Bucky’s eyes widened, and now they were maybe even suspiciously bright. “This is me,” he said, pointing to the drawing, clearly confused.

“Yup.” Tony reached out, tucked a strand of hair behind Bucky’s ear for him, and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “You know, when I was downstairs, I couldn’t help but notice your fan mail is piling up.”

Sure enough, Bucky looked surprised and hesitantly delighted. “Fan mail?”

“No one told you where to find it, did they? We’re all idiots.” Tony snatched up the box, dropped it down on the coffee table, and grabbed Bucky’s shiny hand. “Come on. You have a lot of people waiting for a response.”

Bucky didn’t let go of his hand until they were downstairs, and he was presented with the sheer magnitude of fan mail awaiting him.

“I think some of it might have been sent as a show of support during the public hearings,” Tony said, smiling to himself as Bucky stumbled around and took it all in. “But not all of it. Guessing there are lots of kids that like Bucky best. Wouldn’t even surprise me if there’s a few in there from Jayla.”

Tony huffed as the air was squeezed out of his lungs, feet dangling above the floor. Bucky relaxed his grip a bit, but still held on tight, rocking Tony in his arms. Of course, Tony hugged back, because he wasn’t stupid enough to ever pass up on hugs from his fella.

“Thanks,” Bucky managed eventually, swiping at his eyes, grinning all shy and gorgeous. Tony grinned back, tempted to fist pump victoriously. “Wanna order dinner and go through some of these with me?”

Tony helped himself to a proper kiss. “Sounds like a date, soldier.”

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone loves you, Bucky~!


End file.
